Rashomon was the first movie that taught me about making movies, it was a shining example of how film structure works and it unlocked a personal revelation about assembling a PROPER GOOD piece of work.

I tried to adapt the Rashomon story appropriately into a game using frames as characters "frame" of view where it gives the player the autonomy of action in the memory of the character being spoken to in an attempt to solve the problem of "how is this game about what's it about?"

[SPOILERS] 

You can see that the stories are inconsistent with each other. 
While you can puzzle it out you wont reach far, the point of the game and the film
is the subjectivity of witness - but you can also notice the rain. 
As a slight nod to Kurosawas work with light ive made the stories which are true 
contain rain in the scene. This is because when you're introduced in the world in the main "hub" its raining, 
which is the only truth you know for certain.

The story itself as it was written during the gamejam from a vague memory of the movie goes like this:

Husbands perspective

"And if so, he ran with the gold" 

<Its raining in the forest>
The thief raided their caravan, killed his wife and ran away with their gold 
(i didnt have time portraying that he killed the wife)
The husband hunts down the thief.

"And if so, he was downed by my arrow."

<Its not raining>
He shoots him, wounding his shoulder but leaving him alive.

"And if so, I write my name up in the sky with fire"

<Its not raining>
The husband burns down the thiefs village

Thiefs perspective

"And if so, I've found my own desert"

<It's not raining>
The samurai (husband) has burned down his village out of malice. He lost his home.

"And if so, make these wounds heal with gold."

<It's raining outside>
The thief, out of anger for his burnt village(or so it seems) steals his gold in revenge (this isnt accurately portrayed in the game)

"And if so, fill this room with tremors." 

<Its raining outside>
He kills the wife in revenge.

Wifes perspective

"And if so, our piece of mind will be buried like a treasure."

<Its raining outside>
The wife takes a knife off the table to protect her on her trip.

"And if so, could these fires repair us?"

<Its not raining>
She looks at her husband viciously burning down a village.

"And if so, the world's just a room filled with mirrors."

<Its raining outside>
The wife kills herself out of grief

[SPOILERS] 

What went wrong:

1.  First, the game has a head but no tail. I havent had an opportunity to test it with people
   but it seems that it comes of as confusing when there is no hard end. I imagine even
   Kurosawa mightve ran into a problem of how tie off this type of story, how to end this mystery
   with a satisfying question mark.
2.  Another thing i did wrong was almost copy the whole thing, i shouldve either tried a different
   set piece or anything but the asian aesthetic, it brought nothing new to the table and the story
   couldve been interestingly used in another context. A big part of what i appreciate in creativity
   is the faustian crossroads, connecting two seperate ideas to form something novel. It wouldve been
   more interesting to try that
3. The game needs more autonomy in character perspectives. If i had time i would've invested into player
   soaking in being the thief, samurai and wife characters. Its important to internalize their perspectives
   as if they were completely true, this was is the power games as a medium offer to bring new light into
   an old story and i goofed there.

Other than that i am happy with the reception, most if not all people who played it had only nice things to say and i am thankful for you giving it the time of day. It is fair to say this isnt a horror game nor did i ever intend to make it such. I will continue hammering at it when time allows it but since i didnt have time to play test it i would LOVE to hear some feedback to see what you struggled with personally and what you would like to see this become.

Thanks for reading!